[ynguldyn]

Originally Posted by alex2364

ynguldyn Does it look like G50 M350i RWD is dead, especially for the US market?

Yes

[V-Eight]

Originally Posted by MadBimmeRad

I wouldn't hold my breath on that one

Yeah, I mean that even if there will be (maybe) several updates and LCIs, these cars will be overall the same, speaking of U1X -F4x series obviously.

Looking at G50, it's understood that it'll follow the usual 7/8 yrs timeline.

[Artemis]

Hi ynguldyn, any update on the rumored BMW M über project 'Project Katharina' (± 1 megawatt / ± 1321bhp) ?

Looks like very recently the mystery car was referenced by BMW M CEO Frank van Meel during an event near Adelaide: see here.

The article quoted below was posted in April 2021, so it's a walk down memory lane.

We know in the meantime that 'Project Rockstar' was the code name for the BMW XM (featuring the "ML" [BMW XM] and "MXL" [BMW XM Label Red]).

Originally Posted by Artemis

And about the rumored 'Project Katharina': named after the St. Katharina church (aka Katharinenkirche) in Garching.

Gary C.J. Schweikert - 15 April 2021

Her name is Katharina, and right now she is everyone’s darling at the Bavarian Motor Works. Her address is Daimlerstrasse 19 in Garching-Hochbrück, epicentre of the go-faster BMW M division. But Katharina also has second homes at the Nürburgring and in Miramas, where BMW keeps its biggest proving ground. Kathy – if you don’t mind – has been spotted several times on public roads recently, where her swirly camouflage attracted the attention of spy photographers.
Because Katharina is not a person but a project. A project that at a glance looks like the BMW M2 CS. Except from behind, where that car’s four trademark exhaust pipes are conspicuous by their absence. Close your eyes, listen, and another point of difference becomes clear – Katharina’s high-pitched soundtrack is a far cry from the growling, multi-cylinder racket with which M cars are synonymous. This M2 sounds like absolutely nothing else, which is perfectly okay, because there is no other car like it.
Next year, M division will celebrate its 50th anniversary. Such an occasion warrants a pretty special birthday present. You guessed it: the car expected to roll out of the cake and blow out the candles with plenty of brouhaha is Project Katharina – a very special electric M2.
At this point in time it’s based on the M2 CS. But come 2022 the new rear-wheel-drive G42 2-series will make a much better fit, even though an M version of that car won’t surface before 2023. In the unlikely scenario of the M development team having to step back from the 2-series, the monstrous DNA of Katharina the Great could be transferred easily, and at short notice, to the M3 or M4.
And what a monster this is! One megawatt of raw power – that’s 1000kW, or 1321bhp. Think about that for a moment. This awesome kraftwerk consists of four electric motors, one per wheel. Together they offer a radically advanced level of torque vectoring hitherto available only to the cars you see in cartoons. This constantly variable, four-figure, on-demand punch is supported by the most extreme battery technology conceived to date at the group’s future-energy campus on the outskirts of Munich.
Although this is all still top-secret stuff, reliable sources claim Katharina has already lapped the Nordschleife in under seven minutes, besting the hardly underpowered M8 Competition by more than 40 seconds and putting the electric M2 in Porsche Taycan Turbo S territory. We don’t yet know how many laps the future uber-BMW can run before being black-flagged by excessive tyre wear, cooling issues or a fast-receding state of charge. But in a way that’s immaterial, because the key mission of this advanced M2 is to confirm that emissions-free high performance and M-level handling can go hand in hand.
Acceleration from a standing start is expected to split the 2.0 to 2.5sec bracket. At least as impressive is the brutal throttle response at speed, when wheelspin can be induced in the dry even above 75mph, sources say. So far, Katharina is a work in progress and not yet an approved programme. But according to information gathered from an English powertrain specialist involved in the R&D work, a run of stripped-out and relatively ascetic (no rear seats; carbonfibre panels and roof; hollow-spoke mag wheels; thin-walled glass) limited-edition specials is very much on the cards. Watch this space. And start saving.
This spring, BMW showed the undisguised production i4 – a proper electric BMW with batteries in its belly and enough poke to please impatient speed junkies. Marketing pulled the launch forward three months to out-click the competition and to leave enough ramp-up room for the iX SUV, which debuts only three months later in November.
But where the i4 gets really exciting is when you add the letter M and some lessons from Katharina and find yourself with the 600bhp i4M, complete with a big, fat 120kWh battery. This car is in the works, and its job will be to democratise some of the tech that promises to make that battery-electric hyper-M2 a gamechanger.
Fundamental to the electrification of M will be the hardware at its disposal. BMW’s high-voltage energy system, known as HEAT, comes in three basic sizes. On top of this volume-biased threesome, insiders expect two high-performance variations masterminded by the M division and accordingly labelled ML and MXL.
We’re talking 125kWh-plus batteries here, but what matters even more is the different cell chemistry, which promises an increased number of fast-charging and discharge cycles, a balanced mix of regeneration, performance and coasting sequences, intelligent cooling management and advanced performance electronics. The voltage is expected to increase from 400 to 800 volts (increasing voltage reduces resistance losses, while also reducing weight – thanks to slimmer, lighter cabling – and accelerating charging times) and BMW is even toying with 1200 volts. But at this level the regulators still require impracticalities like documented grounding after every charge…
But if the great Pirelli adverts of the past have taught us one thing, it’s that power is nothing without control. And it’s in this key area – the melding of chassis set-up, stability-control systems and power electronics into a cohesive driving experience – that BMW can point to the i3 and i8 and argue they were not a waste of time. Both drove brilliantly, with the i3 particularly impressive given its unlikely shape and footprint.
And a great deal of time and money has gone into R&D since. Look at the i3S, which debuted a more intelligent eDrive powertrain in which, rather than being tamed by a remote stability-control system, the car’s punchy output was regulated at source, within the drive unit itself, by systems able to respond 50 times faster than a conventional set-up. Then there’s the new hardware, BMW’s fifth-generation eDrive, which arrived on the iX3 and will give the i4 the best possible start in life. If the iX3 is a fairly unremarkable electric SUV on paper, on the road – most unexpectedly – it drives with a poise and a precision that calls to mind the best of BMW’s engine-powered SUVs. And if Frank Weber and his team can pull off something of an Ultimate Driving Machine with that unpromising set of components, imagine what it can achieve with the i4M, based as it will be on the same CLAR platform that the new M3/M4, with a few choice modifications, is putting to such good use right now.
Between now and 2025, all new electric BMWs will be based on advanced versions of the current FAAR and CLAR architectures. One of the last volume models hatched on this platform is the next 5-series, due in late 2023. So, what of that electric M5 we keep hearing so much about? Although an electric i5 is definitely in the offing (see box, below), packaging constraints and the absence of radically more capable batteries practically rule out the projected i5M, which has been pushed back. Instead there is talk of an M5 Performance model sharing its 750bhp power-hybrid drivetrain with project Rockstar, the X8 M hyper-SUV which is said to boast two e-motors in addition to its awesome V8.
One rung below, insiders claim that the first BMW to benefit from the new N-Car matrix – the 2025 platform that’s prompted Oliver Zipse’s Neue Klasse analogy – is the next 3-series, due in 2025. And there’s a certain symmetry to BMW’s critical next phase being spearheaded by the current machine that most closely resembles those of the first Neue Klasse.

[ynguldyn]

Originally Posted by Artemis

Hi ynguldyn, any update on the rumored BMW M über project 'Project Katharina' (± 1 megawatt / ± 1321bhp) ?

I don't think it ever existed beyond some preliminary viability evaluation.

The article is right about models but wrong about most of the details. XM doesn't have two motors, there's no i4 with a 120kWh battery, etc.

[ynguldyn]

The current plans for NCAR M cars, besides the already known ZA0 M3 sedan, include ZA1 M3 Touring, ZA5 iX3M, and ZA7 iX4M.

(In other words: BMW Blog, I see your one ZA car and raise you three more.)

[Artemis]

Originally Posted by ynguldyn

The current plans for NCAR M cars, besides the already known ZA0 M3 sedan, include ZA1 M3 Touring, ZA5 iX3M, and ZA7 iX4M.

(In other words: BMW Blog, I see your one ZA car and raise you three more.)

I guess you were referencing this recent article published by our esteemed colleagues ("First Electric BMW M3 Will Arrive in 2027, Codename ZA0, Less than 1,000 hp").

[saudisinaudis]

I can’t find G80 M3 LCI #1 end of production. Is it supposed to end along with G82 M4 at Feb. 24?

[V-Eight]

Originally Posted by saudisinaudis

I can’t find G80 M3 LCI #1 end of production. Is it supposed to end along with G82 M4 at Feb. 24?

M3 LCI "2" starts 1st July' 24. the LCI"1" ends on june the 30th

[saudisinaudis]

Originally Posted by V-Eight

M3 LCI "2" starts 1st July' 24. the LCI"1" ends on june the 30th

M3 LCI 1 production ends 30th of June 2024?

[drbachata]

ynguldyn What do you make of Frank van Meel's recent interview, where he mentions that 'base' BMW M models will be going away?

https://www.bmwblog.com/2023/09/19/f...ition-version/

Is this more in reference to the next generation of vehicles replacing the G80/G82/G87 starting in 2027 or is this an imminent departure of the base (manual) M models such as the G80 M3 as of the 2025 model year (July 2024 start of production)?

I would appreciate your input!

[Joralemon st.]

Originally Posted by U11sirgawain

https://www.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...php?p=30414255


Likely new upcoming X3 pictures

I just want to see it already! Not a big fan of the new X1, hoping the X3 won't have a grill that's 30% too big...

[ynguldyn]

Originally Posted by drbachata

ynguldyn What do you make of Frank van Meel's recent interview, where he mentions that 'base' BMW M models will be going away?

https://www.bmwblog.com/2023/09/19/f...ition-version/

Is this more in reference to the next generation of vehicles replacing the G80/G82/G87 starting in 2027 or is this an imminent departure of the base (manual) M models such as the G80 M3 as of the 2025 model year (July 2024 start of production)?

I would appreciate your input!

It's marketing. There is always the base model, by definition. But now it could be called "Competition". Whatever.

[saphirschwarz.f48]

Originally Posted by ynguldyn

It's marketing. There is always the base model, by definition. But now it could be called "Competition". Whatever.

And to think Competition was nothing more than an option package just generation ago

[Artemis]

Originally Posted by saphirschwarz.f48

And to think Competition was nothing more than an option package just generation ago

Yup, BMW code "ZCP" (with strong German accent: "Zee Competition Pack").

[saphirschwarz.f48]

Originally Posted by Artemis

Yup, BMW code "ZCP" (with strong German accent: "Zee Competition Pack").

Most of the option packages start with Z too… who say the Germans don’t have humor?

[Simon04090]

Originally Posted by saphirschwarz.f48

Most of the option packages start with Z too… who say the Germans don’t have humor?

Don’t want to be the party crasher here. But I am pretty sure the Z comes from „Zusammenstellung“, which is combination in German.

[ynguldyn]

As an experiment, these are some (those I feel are more interesting) of the specifications of U10 X2 M35i:

Height: 1575mm
Length: 4567mm
Width w/o mirrors: 1845mm
Headroom: 1018mm/943mm
Legroom: 1024mm/933mm
Luggage: 560L/1470L
Curb weight: 1695kg

[brad850csi]

Originally Posted by ynguldyn

As an experiment, these are some (those I feel are more interesting) of the specifications of U10 X2 M35i:

Height: 1575mm
Length: 4567mm
Width w/o mirrors: 1845mm
Headroom: 1018mm/943mm
Legroom: 1024mm/933mm
Luggage: 560L/1470L
Curb weight: 1695kg

Versus F39:

Height: 1526mm - 50mm shorter
Length: 4360mm - 200mm shorter, quite a big difference
Width w/o mirrors: 1824mm 20mm narrower
Headroom: 1016mm/940mm about the same (converted from inches)
Legroom: 1016mm/940mm about the same (converted from inches)
Luggage: 470L/1355L 90l less, quite a big difference
Curb weight: 1615kg 80kg lighter


So basically the usual story, close to the larger car up from a generation or two ago.

[Bemari]

Originally Posted by ynguldyn

G60

• In production until 06/30.
• 11/23: adding worldwide 530e (B48M2+EM, 295hp), 530e xDrive, and 550e xDrive (B58U2+EM, 480hp), US 540i xDrive (B58M2, 370hp) and 550e xDrive.
  

BMW Germany website reveals that 530e xDrive will not have SOP 11/23 like the G60 list above suggests, there are only 530e and 550e xDrive. This is very weird from BMW, usually such removals are not done this late and I have not found any logical reason for that.

Maybe the SOP was postponed to 03/24, because the xDrive version of 530e is very popular in Europe (especially in Northern) and BMW simply can't skip it. Do you ynguldyn see any reason for this SOP postponement or other information?

Additionally, is it sure (well, what is) that M560e xDrive will not be sold in Europe?

Thanks for your input.

[ynguldyn]

Originally Posted by Juvi

BMW Germany website reveals that 530e xDrive will not have SOP 11/23 like the G60 list above suggests, there are only 530e and 550e xDrive. This is very weird from BMW, usually such removals are not done this late and I have not found any logical reason for that.

Maybe the SOP was postponed to 03/24, because the xDrive version of 530e is very popular in Europe (especially in Northern) and BMW simply can't skip it. Do you ynguldyn see any reason for this SOP postponement or other information?

Additionally, is it sure (well, what is) that M560e xDrive will not be sold in Europe?

Thanks for your input.

530ex has been postponed to July 2024. M560ex no longer exists.

(Tracking changes is more difficult for me than the initial release plans, which is why I missed it.)

[NGT2]

Originally Posted by ynguldyn

530ex has been postponed to July 2024. M560ex no longer exists.

(Tracking changes is more difficult for me than the initial release plans, which is why I missed it.)

Do you have any idea why the M560ex has been scrapped?

[V-Eight]

Originally Posted by NGT2

Do you have any idea why the M560ex has been scrapped?

A reason could be its high production costs vs expected sales....as a customer near the "elctrification way of thinking" would go for the i5 M60 in my opinion.